Korean heartthrob actor Kim Soo-hyun has joined the yellow ribbon campaign in support of the passengers of the sunken ferry Sewol. He posted an image of a yellow ribbon on his official website.Beneath the yellow ribbon, he wrote, “I hope all our hearts reach heaven.”The yellow ribbon campaign launched as a symbol of hope for the safe return of those who went missing after the Sewol disaster. An increasing number of people have posted the image of a yellow ribbon on their social networking or mes

The K-pop scene has come to a virtual standstill since the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol, but two rookie acts are creating some excitement in charts. High4, a four-member boy band, retained the top spot on major digital music charts on Sunday, with its debut single “Not Spring, Love or Cherry Blossoms.” Featuring popular singer IU, the song is a sweet, mid-tempo ballad about loneliness during the blossoming season. As of noon Sunday, it topped Melon, the country’s most popular real-time di

YG Entertainment CEO Yang Hyun-suk will donate 500 million won ($480,000) to help the families of those killed in the ferry sinking last week.The donation will be made through YG’s charity project WITH, which has long used some of YG’s annual profits to help those in need in Korea, according to YG Entertainment.“As a parent myself, it was heart-wrenching to follow the Sewol accident. I know that there are no words that could console the parents who lost their children in this tragedy,” Yang was

K-pop star to play Don Lockwood in ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

Kim Soo-hyun, one of Korea’s hottest TV stars, will donate 300 million won ($289,000) for the young victims and survivors of the Sewol ferry sinking, joining a slew of celebrities in offering aid, donations and condolences in the wake of one of the country’s worst maritime calamities ever. “Kim Soo-hyun will be donating the money directly to Danwon High School in Ansan. All decisions, including the amount and recipients, are his own,” the actor’s agency said Thursday. Over 300 students and teach

As the death toll from the ferry accident continues to rise day by day, veteran composer Yoon Il-sang has written a requiem for the victims.“I dedicate this song to the Sewol victims who have passed away ... I pray that they will be happy in the afterlife,” Yoon Il-sang wrote on his Twitter page on Wednesday after unveiling the elegy on his SoundCloud account.“Take Care,” a calm and doleful piano composition, was written, arranged and played by the composer himself.“It was difficult to work on b

As the weather begins to brighten and the promise of greener pastures is just around the corner, a handful of popular artists have organized a series of concerts, moving away from the typical overcrowded, flashy K-pop stage settings. Shin Seung-hoon, IU, Lena Park and other stars will be performing a series of intimate concerts on small stages across the city to usher in the spring. Veteran singer Shin, oftentimes dubbed the “King of Ballads” in Korea, has announced that he will be holding a str

Actress Han Ga-in, 32, and her husband, actor Yeon Jung-hoon, 36, are expecting their first child after 9 years of marriage.“Han Ga-in is currently pregnant. Yeon is very happy, because it’s their first child after years of marriage,” Han’s agency BH Entertainment said in a statment on Monday. “However, as the nation is in grief over the ferry disaster, the couple notified only their families and relatives of the pregnancy.”According to the agency, “Han will be focusing on prenatal care for the

The members of EXO-M, the Mandarin unit of popular K-pop band EXO, recently returned home to China, where they performed their newest single “Overdose” for the first time on CCTV’s “Global Chinese Music” live stage music ranking program on Sunday.EXO’s upcoming “Overdose” mini-album was originally set to be released on April 21, but has been officially postponed as the nation continues to mourn for the victims and missing passengers, mostly students, of the Sewol ferry sinking. Because of the tr

Andy, a member of K-pop band Shinhwa who has been lying low after having been caught gambling illegally late last year, will attend a fan meeting in China next month, his agency said Monday. “Yes, Andy is going to China on request from fans. But it is not a signal of his comeback to the stage or small screen here,” an official at TOP Media told The Herald Business, the sister paper of The Korea Herald.           OSENAccording to the agency, the 33-year-old singer will meet his Chinese fans in th

The man inside the Spider-Man suit in the recently released Hollywood blockbuster “The Amazing Spider Man 2” is not only Andrew Garfield, but also Korean-American Ilram Choi.According to Sony Pictures Releasing Walt Disney Studios Korea on Monday, “The Hollywood stuntman Ilram Choi has participated as one of Andrew Garfield’s stunt doubles in the recent Amazing Spider-Man movie series, as he did during the first movie.” (Director Marc Webb’s SNS)According to the motion picture distributor, Choi

Folk band pays tribute to nonmainstream ways

Greenplugged Seoul 2014, an annual outdoor music festival originally scheduled for early May, has officially been postponed, as the nation continues to grieve for more than 240 people still missing from the Sewol ferry sinking.GPS announced on Friday that it has pushed back the event from May 3-4 to May 31-June 1. The venue, Seoul Nanji Hangang Park, will be unchanged.“A tragic event occurred just about two weeks ahead of the festival. We have been following the event closely with much sadness a